Cecelia Mason--an Elf?
by SophitzShipper
Summary: Based of Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger, Cecelia manifests as a telepathy at age three. When Biana Vacker finds this out, it is revealed that for better or worse,vthe Black Swan gas released mire Moonlarks
1. Chapter 1: The Elves

Prologue

3-year-old Cecelia Mason thought of all the possible weird dreams that could possibly spring up in her head, and found that she drifted off to sleep quite quickly. Even today she doesn't remember the odd dreams that must've stirred her, but she woke up and fell off her bed. She hit the floor with a thud.

 _What was that noise? Argh! I'm trying to sleep!_

 _Did Cecelia just fall out of bed again? We need to get her a bed fence._

 _Dang it! That was the best part of that dream!_

All the voices were piled on top of each other. They sounded like her family's voices. First her brother, then her mom, then her dad. But why would they repeat these thoughts out loud? They never had before.

Suddenly, she picked up her neighbor's dreams. _I don't want to go to mars. I want to stay here on Earth. I don't like your spaceship. Leave me alone! Arrrrrrgh!_

Why was she hearing dreams? And did her parents speak out loud, or was that just their thinking?

Was she… _hearing thoughts_?

Cecelia stood up with the help of her bed and stumbled out of her room. She didn't know where she was going, but she dressed and played with her hair till it was perfect. Then she went outside early.

A hundred voices filled her head, and a headache took place. Cecelia thought desperately, _help!_

Chapter 1

12-year-old Cecelia climbed out of bed at 8:00 in the morning, while her brother stomped down the stairs going crazy and her parents prepared him breakfast. When I finally got down the stairs, I spread some jelly on some toast, and skipped out the door, with seemingly not a care in the world.

Once she was out, she swerved around. A girl about 17 years old with brown hair and an eye color Cecelia had never seen before—a radiant teal—stood right before her. "Whoa," she commented. She was somehow really pretty, making Cecelia feel like a monkey.

"Sorry," Cecelia apologized. With her chocolate brown eyes, Cecelia didn't think she was much of a look-match for the girl's teal eyes. What was with the color, anyway? Did anyone have that kind of color?

"No, I'm the one who should apologize," the girl said. "By the way, my name's Bi…Bian…Bianca." She looked like she had been deciding on a name.

"I'm Cecelia. Is Bianca your real name?" Cecelia asked.

"No, it's not," Bianca admitted. "But my name doesn't sound hu… doesn't sound normal."

"Come on, it sounds human," Cecelia said. Bianca had been afraid to say human—why?

"It's Biana," she finally sighed.

"That's not bad," Cecelia encouraged her. She wondered how many people Biana had told her name was Bianca.

"Glad you think so—oh, I like… like your eyes," Biana said. She looked like she was hiding disappointment. "They're a really pretty color. So… brown."

"I like your teal," Cecelia replied. Why was Biana disappointed that she had brown eyes?  
Suddenly, for a moment it looked like Biana must've turned invisible. "Whoa!" Cecelia cried in shock.

"What?" Biana asked.

"You… disappeared," Cecelia said.

All the color drained from Biana's face. She turned a real bad white. Even the rest of her body became a bit a bit pale.

"It's fine if you're not normal," Cecelia said cheerfully. "I never tell anyone this, but ever since I was three, I've been hearing people's thoughts."

Relief seemed to take Biana over, until she paled again. "You were three? That's younger than Sophie. The Black Swan made another Moonlark. That explains the brown eyes. _Three years old_! What in the Lost Cities?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down," Cecelia said. "Who's Sophie? What's the Black Swan? What's a Moonlark? Why does it matter that I have brown eyes? Why does it matter that I was three? Are the Lost Cities… real?"

"Look, Cecelia," Biana said. "You're not human. You're an elf. All of us have brown eyes… except you and Sophie. The Black Swan created Sophie, which is why she had brown eyes. It was called Project Moonlark. She was their first Moonlark, and usually you manifest a special ability around fourteen. She manifested at five, and you at three. Now that I think about, you guys even look similar. Oh, and the Lost Cities _are_ real. Elves live there."

Too much to take in at once. Cecelia stepped back. Slowly she backed away. "It was… nice meeting you," she said slowly as she backed up. "And I recommend seeing a mental doctor." Then she turned around and ran.


	2. Chapter 2: She's Gone

Chapter 2

"Cecelia!" Biana called after her. "Wait!" She ran after Cecelia, but, as Biana would later find out, Cecelia was the fastest on her track team. Not that it was important. Biana had lost the new Moonlark.

She pulled her Imparter out of her pocket. "Show me dad," she whispered. Alden's face popped up on the screen.

"Hey Biana—is that Linwood I see in the background?" Alden squinted his eyes.

"Yeah," Biana admitted. "I thought I'd get a taste of where Sophie used to live. But San Diego was not… I didn't want to go there. And I like New Jersey."

"At least you aren't in New York City," Alden chuckled. "A hundred humans would be all over you trying to get you to be a model."

"I didn't wear makeup," Biana said defensively. "But I guess an elf's natural beauty can stun a human." She tossed her hair.

"Well, why did you hail me?" Alden asked, getting straight to the point.

"There's another Moonlark," Biana said, her mind returning to what had just happened.

"You're sure?" Alden asked, looking worried.

"Yep," Biana confirmed.

"How do you know?"

"Well," Biana said, "She manifested as a telepath at age three. She says she hears voices. Her eyes are brown, but when I realized she was speaking right along in the Enlightened Language, I got suspicious. But I accidentally vanished."

"You _what_?" Alden practically shouted.

"That was exactly the look on her face, and she said I turned invisible," Biana admitted. "But then again, she was speaking our language. So anyway, when she said she heard voices since age three that settled it. And since she had brown eyes, it's definitely a Black Swan creation."

"Don't talk about her like she's not an elven being," Alden scolded. "She's not an 'it' any more than you are."

"Sorry," Biana mumbled. "Anyway, do you agree?"

"Where is she now?" Alden asked, concern creeping onto his face.

"That's what I wanted to tell you," said Biana. "She's gone."


	3. Chapter 3: You're one, too

Chapter 3

"Who are you?" Cecelia asked, looking at the (again strikingly beautiful) girl standing in front of her. It wasn't Biana; this girl had blonde hair and brown eyes, though she was about Biana's age. And she was just as stunning.

"My name is Sophie Foster," she replied, holding out her hand. "What's your name?"

"Cecelia Mason," Cecelia answered, shaking Sophie's hand.

"Anything unusual happen when you were young?" Sophie asked. Cecelia's heart almost stopped beating. Did she know?

"Well, when I was three, voices started filling my head," Cecelia admitted.

Sophie laughed. "The same thing happened to me when I was five," she said. "They were other people's thoughts."

"Same," said Cecelia. She was beginning to like Sophie.

"And then," Sophie said, chuckling at the memory, "some deranged kid with teal eyes came and told me I was an elf. He was cute, but… he needed to see a mental doctor."

"Some girl named Biana," Cecelia put into the conversation, "with the same type of eyes—stunning blue—came by and she disappeared. When she reappeared she told me I was an elf."

"Well, that wasn't the end of my story," Sophie said. "The kid named Fitz pulled something out of his pocket that looked like this." She took out a silver stick with a blue crystal on it. "He said it was a pathfinder. He said the human world was the Forbidden Cities, and blue crystals traveled to and from human world. I laughed out loud. But then he held it up to the sunlight, like this—" Sophie held the "pathfinder" up to the sunlight—"and the light did that—" Sophie continued at a beam of bright light appeared—"And he grabbed my hand, and we—" Sophie grabbed Cecelia's hand, and a warm sensation filled her. Warm feathers seemed to surround her, and then both of them were suddenly in a world full of crystals and jewels. "Fitz wasn't deranged after all. I really was an elf. I was a special elf, made by a group called the Black Swan. I was a Moonlark." Sophie looked Cecelia squarely in the eye. "We think you're one, too."


	4. Chapter 4: Long Story

Chapter 4

"A _Moonlark_. What _is_ that?" It hadn't taken long for Cecelia to get over the shock of Eternalia, and Havenfield, and Everglen (where she met Sophie's boyfriend and that girl Biana), because Sophie kept throwing out weird words she didn't understand. "How is this possible? Who's the Black Swan? Tell me _everything_."

And so it was that Sophie pretty much completely redid a conversation that she said she'd had with someone named Amy – but when Cecelia asked who that was, it seemed to be one too many questions, and Sophie's faraway eyes told the story enough for the moment.

Cecelia had learned more about everything than she ever needed to know. It was like science class could have been named, "don't listen to any of this information because it's all dumb things that people like _Albert Einstein_ came up with so clearly it's all a boring waste of your time". And she couldn't help thinking she was just dreaming about a way to make her fit in – make her _belong_ – with all the thoughts that came into her head, and –

"It's real, Cecelia," Sophie said, making her jump.

"Did you do that weird telepathy thing again?"

The boy named Fitz walked into the room when he heard this. "Sophie, I thought you learned since we met not to look in people's minds."

"I wouldn't if it wasn't crucial to the moment – and I can only get in because of that code Mr. Forkle gave me. Her blocking's even stronger than _mine_!"

Fitz gave a that-can't-be-true half-smile to Sophie, but she nodded over and over. They stared into each other's eyes without blinking so long, Cecelia wondered if she was caught in the middle of a romantic moment she wasn't a part of before Sophie broke the connection and rubbed her head, saying, "I think this is freaking Cecelia out. Let's communicate out loud, for now."

Aaaaaaaand. That's what Cecelia should have guessed.

 _Transmitting_.

A part of that long, mallowmelt-enhanced story.

Suddenly, she heard the Imparter noise that Sophie had shown her. Sophie looked worried, and Fitz looked – well, like something _shouldn't_ be happening. But it was because…

Well, apparently that girl that Sophie didn't want to talk about was calling – _hailing_ \- her.

"Hi Amy," Sophie said sternly. "This _better_ be good."


End file.
